The Laborious Hour

Join Aaron Cool of Three Star Extractions put his compendium of home grown wisdom to work converting hemp into the finest additive and

Tune into Edgar and James work a Woodmizer LT70 while owner Roy talks about what it takes to keep a sawmill alive and why people are the heart of his industry.

Join Amanda and Ray carve beautiful tones out of “two pieces of wood glued together.” Hear how Amanda became a luthier's apprentice, what she thinks makes a good student, and how her teacher Ray knows exactly what the wood wants.   Hear carving, tuning, tea making and much much more direct from the middle of the woods.

A special two hour end of year clip show revisiting some of the sweetest sounds and wisest wisdom shared on The Laborious Hour throughout 2019. This month we're gonna hear from a sitting chair who loves to help but can't help but forget. An imitation meat maker who's favorite part of the day is the end. And a classical guitar luthier who'd do anything to pass the right lessons on to the next generation. But first we pick up where we left off last episode and rejoin Mark Guenther of Muddy Pond sorghum at early morning on the Cumberland plateau. A little under two hours into a field's worth of sorghum cultivation  we also hear from Maddie, Ethel and Fern. Two of his best horses and one of his favorite mules doing most of the work.

This month we rejoin Maddie, Ethel, Fern and Mark Guenther of Muddy Pond Sorghum cultivating this season's crop. As the sun continues to rise atop the beautiful Cumberland Plateau we hear Mark and team of horse and mules working the cultivator to pull out the weeds. Using skills and insights passed from generation to generation on this land, let's listen and learn a little bit more about why they do what they do.

Tune in this month to first thing in the morning on the Cumberland Plateau. Hear part one of Mark Gunther of Muddy Pond Sorghum and team, (two mules, one horse) pull his cultivator through a field of Sorghum and demonstrate some of their traditional farming techniques.   Enjoy!

Tune into the heart of Manhattan's Garment center for the cutting, pressing and sewing of one of the only remaining fabric flowers factories in the world, M&S Schmalberg. Join third Generation “Flower Man” Warren Brand as he shares the highs and lows of his unique vintage trade. Hear a little bit of what it takes to keep the doors open, and why he always keeps showing up.

Rejoin Conrad at Just Ice working with team and bandsaws to make their daily count of ice rocks. Then as he takes his shift in the freezer packaging cubes learn how he got into ice, how he's getting better at it and what's the worst part about working with cold.

Tune in to hear Conrad at Just Ice man the saws with team and the hop in the freezer solo to finish 1050 1"x1"x1" blocks.  

This Month, hear behind wall of Music City's most "way less stressful" and "authentic" pizzaria with Deighton and their pit of dish.

Listen to young, queer farmer of color Sara finish all her morning chores while sharing sturdy wisdom about what it means to work alone in rural America.   Hear equipment sterilization, bucket filling, livestock feeding, chuckling and milking all while Sara shares her radical land reclamation philosophies.   Enjoy! 

This month on a

Tune in and hear third generation Luthier Manuel Delgado plane, sand & iron away one of two-hundred hours it takes them to hand craft a concert classical guitar.

This month Belmont University Motion Picture Department Chair & Head of Screenwriting Will Akers prints, proofreads, emails, dictates and reprints while we share a bit of the wisdom they've learned teaching students over the last three decades!

Tune in to get fired up with Sean Neil of Sincerus bronze as he and team give final touches to the Knoxville Burn Memorial. Hear ferric nitrate, fire and water transform bronze for the last time and all time.

This month!... The First Annual End of Year Clip Show

A special trilogy of laboriousness as David of Bre starts up his glass shop and warms up an old barn. Ben at BillFixers uses his favorite machine to maximize the ability of BillFixing. And Sarah (almost) finishes a batch of popping chocolate.

Return to Sarah of Bang Candy Company's “Little Dungeon in the Sky” and hear her cutting, crackling & weighing to get an hour closer to a finished batch of their famous “Firecracker Bark.”

Join Sarah of Bang Candy Company in her “dungeon in the sky” whipping up sounds of Firecracker Bark being tempered, sloshed about, and poured over her giant slabs of stainless steel. Enjoy!

Within spitting distance of the historic banks of the Mississippi River, hear Mike Shoriak of Cypress Building Conservation and his friend Michelle shoot limestone at a brick wall to remove 150 year old paint that should never have been there in the first place.

Head farthest east in Tennessee to follow Marinda and her team through the historic LC King Factory as they update to an over 100 year old pattern, the 165. Hear all corners of factory ring as the first fresh design of many finishes its way across factory floors.

Hear Mr. LaClair and crew fracture up an ice rink and roll up tubing for the truck back home. 

The Laborious Hour presents sounds of six hardworking women across the Florida keys facing the first new year since Hurricane Irma. Any of you all know how it can be to work down there? Time to find out!

Tune in this month with Marianne van den Broek of Just Sand and Water on the United State's southernmost shore. Hear carving, scraping and roosters while she transforms sand and water into monumental treasure! 

Hear Will Tarleton of Six Boot's Growers Collective trim his first Hemp plant of the year. Trimming one of 200 plants we get a sense of the scale at the operation and appreciate what a labor of love one of the first legal hemp crops in Tennessee. Sounds heard included a hose, footsteps, dogs, roosters, plant trimming, sticky fingers and a surprise reaction to an undesirable insect. 

Tune into the first ever Laborious Hour to hear the start of a peanut cart and the tiniest cell phone shop with the biggest heart.